New Delhi: The Congress is resorting to the back-to- basics approach and will conduct a door-to-door drive to take the party’s 25 social welfare guarantees to around 8 crore households over the coming weeks.
The grand old party hopes to mobilise workers through the drive dubbed ‘Ghar Ghar Guarantee’ and establish the much-needed voter connect in the ensuing elections.
Former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who filed his nomination from Kerala’s Wayanad parliamentary constituency on April 3, later went door-to-door along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and distributed the Congress guarantee cards among the voters in Maravayal Colony in Kalpetta area.
The cards, detailing the 5 pillars of social justice related to youth, women, farmers, unorganized workers and backward communities, carry the signatures of party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.
“Kerala is the only state where the poll campaigning is done door to door and is an accepted mode. We will try to reach all households in all the 20 Lok Sabha seats. The guarantee cards have been printed here in Malayalam and English. Similarly, the cards have been printed in 13 other regional languages for other states. This drive will have a major impact on the voters as the benefits are huge,” AICC secretary in charge of Kerala P Vishwanathan said.
According to party managers, the 25 guarantees have been designed to cover a large section of society which the Congress is targeting in the 2024 national elections and is consistent with Rahul Gandhi’s focus.
“Our leader has been highlighting for years that unemployment is the biggest concern among the youth today, price rise affects women who manage households, the farmers are in distress and the unorganized sector workers are insecure. Besides, he also wants a caste census done which will reveal the true picture of society and allow us to frame policies accordingly. The guarantees show our seriousness and are backed by the fact that our state governments in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana have delivered on what we promised,” AICC secretary in charge of Gujarat BM Sandeep Kumar told this channel.
According to party insiders, a similar campaign was conducted during the 2022 Gujarat assembly polls under which booth-level teams went door-to-door to explain the party’s manifesto.
The 25 guarantees are included in the party’s 2024 poll manifesto which will be released by Kharge and Rahul on April 5. A day later, former party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul will release copies of the document in Jaipur and Hyderabad respectively on April 6 to publicize the promises.
“The Congress came to power in the state majorly based on the six guarantees given by Sonia Gandhi who had earlier played a role in the creation of the state in 2013. Now, we will benefit from Rahul Gandhi’s making the promises,” AICC secretary in charge of Telangana Rohit Chaudhary told this channel.
“Besides the door-to-door campaign across the country, we will also publicise the 25 guarantees through text messages to mobile phone users. The state units have been asked to handle that responsibility,” a senior AICC functionary said.
